WSIB Ontario names members of Scientific Advisory Table on Occupational Disease

Months after Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) announced it is establishing a new advisory table that will help shape provincial policy related to compensating workers who are impacted by occupational disease, the agency has now named the members of the Scientific Advisory Table on Occupational Disease.

Members include:

• Anil Adisesh, occupational medicine physician and chief medical officer at Canadian Health Solutions in Saint John, NB
• Victoria Arrandale, assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
• Donald C. Cole, emeritus professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
• Marianne Levitsky, adjunct lecturer at the Occupational and Environmental Health Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
• Thomas Tenkate, associate professor at the School of Occupational and Public Health, Ryerson University

Meanwhile, appointed members include:

• Paul A. Demers, director, Occupational Cancer Research Centre, Ontario Health
• Vincent Spilchuk, residency program director, Division of Occupational Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
• Tiffany K. Turnbull, assistant director, Operational Policy Branch, WSIB

“Establishing the Table is one way we can ensure we are relying on the best scientific evidence available when we look at occupational disease claims,” according to WSIB Ontario.

The Table will make recommendations to help the agency decide on:

• the scope of scientific reviews in order to answer specific questions at hand;
• the experts that could be consulted;
• possible peer-reviewers and the clarification of the reviewer's comments;
• assessment and potential options in the case of contradictory opinions; and
• general ad hoc occupational disease issues

In March 2021, Ontario released a new resource to improve awareness of Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) for workers.

Consultation

Also, WSIB Ontario is extending its consultation on the Occupational Diseases (OD) policy framework until Feb. 28, 2022.

The framework will anchor future policy development activities to a transparent set of policy principles and guide the use of scientific evidence in the scheduling of diseases and development and updating of occupational disease policies.

The framework provides an overview of the policy development process, including:

1. An outline of the legislative and policy scheme for occupational disease under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA)
2. The process for identifying and prioritizing occupational disease policy issues
3. The approach to gathering scientific evidence and other policy information to support the research and analysis phase of policy development
4. A description of the thresholds used to determine whether an occupational disease is best treated as a schedule entry or policy
5. An overview of the consultation approach

Interested parties can submit their feedback on the draft Occupational Disease Policy Framework to the WSIB’s Consultation Secretariat at [email protected]. All stakeholder submissions will be posted to this webpage following the consultation, according to the agency.